Britain’s most talented
handball players will have the opportunity to relocate to two of the world’s leading handball academies in Denmark.
This will be a life changing event for these would-be Olympians. Find out more about the facilities they will use and what
their programme will look like…

Up to 25 men and 25 women will,
in due course, be relocated to , to practice handball on a full-time basis.The
selection criteria will be rigorous and those players invited to join the Performance squad, will see their lives change dramatically,
as they are immersed in a total handball culture.

The two handball academies selected
by the BHA are located in Aarhus, in the north of Jutland, and at Oure, near Svendborg, on the island of Fyn .

Both academies boast several
full size handball courts, weight training facilities, swimming pools and many other facilities, as well as having excellent
on-site residential accommodation.

During the first year, players would
stay at the handball academies and undergo handball training 6 times a week, as well as physical, jump and sprint training
sessions.In addition players will be given Danish language and culture training.

The players will be placed in local
Danish clubs, at a level suitable to them

There are numerous top
handball clubs within close proximity of both handball academies, which would allow players to easily attend extra training
sessions.

Both handball academies are staffed
by top Danish coaches, so the Performance squads will be in good hands.The Coaching staff includes Jan
Pitlik (Olympic gold medalist with the Danish national women’s team) and Erik Vej Rasmussen (former trainer of top German
1st Division club Flensburg ).The BHA-appointed
national coaches, who will be located in Denmark, would retain overall control of the coaching programme, working closely
with the Danish coaches.A BHA appointed Danish programme Co-ordinator would also be available to help
players with their lifestyle management

Text: Paul Bray

Wednesday 15th February-

Wirral Handball Club meeting. All ages groups attended with the
parents of the mini's team also representing. Chaired by Jon Kelly

Main topics of discussion:-

Three problems/areas to change in each club, and also possible solutions to these
problems. Each group separated to discuss issues and then each fed back to the whole club. Each group had their own individual
problems, the men's was the lack of communication between the team, maybe due to the fact that turn out was low some weeks
making it harder for information to be passed. The women's concerns where commitment to the team and that the coaches felt
that they didn't know what the 'wanted' from handball and what there goals were. What do they want to get out of handball?
The mini's issues the parents and coaches raised were basically and most importantly for the club was how to keep the children
interested which also links in to the coaching! As the minis session comes at the end of the week and the coach's have came
from a busy 'handball' schedule linked in with there work life, it was felt that maybe extra help could be given during the
Saturday sessions, and maybe this would keep the kids interested as there can be quite a big turn out some weeks, which can
be hard for the 'unpaid' coaches

However the overall issue that was raised in the meeting was the lack of support
from and for each club. Simple solutions to resolve this issue would be total commitment from all players, but in each team,
there other 'life' commitments make this hard, such as family, work, university. Hand in hand with this problem was the issue
of funding, if we cant make the numbers we cant pay for the training sessions. Jon Kelly, brought up some relevant and crucial
information about the possibilities of Lottery Funding and other organisations which we could apply for. This is about putting
ourselves out there, an making ourselves known, producing a proposal that would secure a Lottery Fund. A lot of the members
were interested in gaining qualifications to become handball trainers, which means more promotion in schools. We have to target
the children as the club has no under 16 age group boys or girls. This is a problem for the future, and when the minis move
up to these age groups we still need to keep younger children interested.

Other meetings will be arranged to keep track of the
developments in response to this meeting.